Law Times

PAGE 4 NEWS 'The strike has killed any and all momentum' Osgoode law school hit by walkout BY JEFFREY H. WAUGH Law Times A s part-time teaching staff walked the picket line last week, Osgoode Hall Law School's 900 students were left wondering how the course of their legal education will be af- fected by the work stoppage. At press time, a full week had passed without classes at the law school, while members of CUPE Local 3903, representing approx- imately 3,400 teaching assistants, contract faculty, and graduate as- sistants at York University, went off the job. Late in the week came word of a glimmer of hope with a meeting between the two sides on Thurs- day afternoon, however the parties did not reach any form of resolu- tion. But even if classes were to resume this week, students were telling Law Times the walkout has had a disruptive effect on their law school experience. "The strike has killed any and all momentum I had," says Ryan Edmonds, a fi rst-year student at Osgoode. He adds that the strike has taken away the pressure of completing readings and preparing for mid-terms, which he doesn't necessarily see as a good thing. "You can think of 1L as a bit of a freight train that constantly picks up speed. It starts in mid-October with mid-term preparation and keeps building until fi nal exams in December. That pressure, stress, and momentum is what's required to get through all that work." With the strike, he says, that drive has stopped cold. "It's going to be extremely hard to get back up to that speed whenever classes start up again," he tells Law Times. Tim Hudek, another fi rst- year student at Osgoode, ad- mits that it's been a nice break in some ways — he's had time to catch up on course readings following the mid-term exam period — but he still has worries about what's going to happen. "The other concern I have is what exactly will the school do in the event of a prolonged strike — will they be extending the exam pe- riod further into December, or will they be moving the exam period in January," says Hudek. Hudek, like most students, has already booked and paid for his holiday travel. He says changes to the semester could result in ad- ditional fees for having to adjust those arrangements. And then there's the fear over how the content of the courses is going to be condensed into a shorter time frame. Since the strike has passed sev- en days, the university is operat- ing under its long-term disruption guidelines. All half-year courses will be subject to some type of remedial action, which will be de- pendent on the intricacies of each individual class. "Of course there's the concern of, are professors going to have to be cutting the curriculum down, are we going to be missing out on things that other students in other schools are going to be learning about, are these going to be im- portant subjects," says Hudek. "Or, is it going to be simply a case of sort of learning on your own and combining what you've Canuck firms operate 'leanly' Continued from page 1 the economic slowdown, as most organizations seem to be on plan for 2008. But he says 2009 will see a "softening" of large corporate transactions. While full service fi rms with diversifi ed prac- tices will be better able to weather the storm, Co- hen says he doesn't think Toronto will be hit as hard as major U.S. cities, where some big fi rms have either let go a swath of associates, merged, or collapsed in part due to slowing business. Co- hen says Toronto's commercial real estate industry continues to thrive, for example, suggesting fi rms will remain busy. He adds that Canadian fi rms have operated "fairly leanly" compared to their southern coun- terparts in terms of staffi ng, and that fi rms did not hire too many new bodies during the good times. He adds that some continue to face staffi ng shortages in certain practice areas. A fuller picture on the demand for legal ser- vices in Canada will present itself in the coming months, says Cohen. "The interesting thing is going to be whether Canada follows the U.S. as hard, and whether we see a more severe downturn of fi nancial activity, lets say after the Christmas sales numbers come in," he says. "You can sort of determine whether the manufacturing businesses in Canada are go- ing to scale back, because when they start scaling back, they're not doing acquisitions and they're not spending money, they're conserving their resourc- es. And so they're not spending money on cap-ex projects or acquisition projects that fuel legal bills." Despite a thorough analysis of what indicators to look for, Cohen is reluctant to issue a forecast for the legal industry. "It's a tough one to call right now, because we have not yet seen the Canadian economy dip the way the U.S. has," he says. "I no longer try to predict this." LT Looking for an easier way to attract attention? learned in class with the addition- al readings you would have done." The thought of reducing course content raises issues and concerns over future hiring, if students end up lacking certain knowledge due to the strike, but at least one fi rm has confi rmed that it has not had an impact on the hiring decisions for the upcoming summer. Kara Sutherland, director of professional resources with the To- ronto offi ce of Fraser Milner Cas- grain LLP, says that offers from their summer recruitment effort had gone out on Wednesday, the day prior to the strike. Edmonds says students are still managing to fi nd a positive educa- tion experience out of the ordeal, though. He points to the new blog for the Osgoode Labour & Em- ployment Law Society (available at www.labourlawstudents.org), which he says has been following developments in the strike. "It was actually inspired by Da- vid Doorey, a labour law professor on campus who's been using his blog to communicate what CUPE's rights are with respect to striking, picketing, etc.," says Edmonds. "So, in other words, the strike has been a valuable educational experience, from a labour law perspective." You can see the encouragement from Doorey to his students in tak- ing an informed, rational approach from one of his recent posts to his own workplace law blog. "If you want to criticize strikers, that's fi ne," writes Doorey. "But you should fi rst educate yourself on the bargaining positions of the parties, and be prepared to make arguments based on facts and reason." Doorey has even taken the op- portunity to get students reading relevant legislation and case law. In a topic posted one day prior to the strike, he encouraged students to educate themselves on the le- galities of picketing. At press time, the general con- sensus amongst students and faculty was not overly optimistic to the pos- sibility of quick resolution. "The rumour mill has been go- ing," says Hudek. "There's been all sort of talk about exactly how long the strike is going to be lasting." He says there are plenty of opin- ions on when the strike will end, and lots of confl icting information. "Something that's been indi- cated to me by professors is that in the past, for sort of a con- tingency plan in the event of a prolonged strike, is that they might move some of the classes off campus," says Hudek. "But we've also received an e-mail saying that's not going to hap- pen this time, so it's hard to say exactly what the situation is go- ing to be this time around." Osgoode Hall's student news- paper, Obiter Dicta, the latest edi- tion of which was published on Nov.10, had a few words to offer for concerned students. "While it can be frustrating to have the school year disrupted, the na- ture of our very powerlessness to do anything about it should be a source of liberation insofar as worrying about it," wrote one editor.. The university has repeated its offer of going to binding arbi- tration, but the union continues to reject the proposal. The uni- versity's position is that proceed- ing with binding arbitration is the quickest way to get students back in class. In a press release issued by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, they claim that the union's membership does more than 50 per cent of the teaching at York University. The university is offering a 9.25 per cent raise over the next three- year period, which has been rejected by the union. Also on the table is the length of the contract. The union is look- ing for a two-year contract, but the university is standing fi rm with its three-year offer. York University is the coun- try's largest university, 50,000 students. with LT Insurance Our goal?… Your Financial Security! Interested in premium savings, superior protection, and prompt, personal attention for ALL of your Family and Business insurance needs? Then trust the RIBO licensed insurance professionals at: Ryan Guthrie 416-487-5200 • 1-888-310-SAVE 505 Consumers Rd., Toronto info@guthrieinsurance.com - www.guthrieinsurance.com Economical, innovative, insurance plans for ALL of your, and your clients, Home, Business, Auto, Life and Leisure insurance needs. it's easy. www.lawtimesnews.com JobsInLaw_sailing_half.indd 1 11/13/08 5:12:39 PM Helping families and business arrange quality insurance protection for over 40 years. yan Guthrie CAIB, CIP President Guthrie Insurance Brokers November 17, 2008 • Law Times

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